"This is worse than the depths of the crash of 1987."

Actually, from the August peak in 1987 to the October low the drop was more than 50% (2746 to 1616). That said, if you look at it on a weekly basis it's definitely the worst anyone under about 100 years old has seen, as the table on this page shows: http://bespokeinvest.typepad.com/bespoke/2008/10/financial-war.html